INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS

Analysing competitiveness key factors becomes essential to successfully tackle the present and future economic environment. This has been so far the goal pursued in several previous articles in this blog.

The most relevant factor to take into consideration in order to become competitive and play the field in big markets was a complex operation.

Coming up with it involved dissecting the list of countries by R+D investment rating and establishing a difference between this indicator and the set of variables that determine the innovative character of a country.

This factor will conclude, in terms of international competitive relevance, which countries lie at the forefront of international influence and which must face difficulties and limitations for being placed right behind or even farther.

So, taking these elements into consideration, current global economic power epicentre is being moved towards the East by new prominent areas specialized in trading goods, along with countries from other parts of the world like the USA.

Countries considered to have a low influence in international economic relations, right until now, are becoming, and will become front row countries. China, India, South Korea, Philippines and Singapore are among these.

70% of global middle class will live in Asia, so this gives a hint about where central market activity will be in the next 30 years. Countries within this continent will have the largest population as well as the highest incomes. Opportunities will arise to a great extend due to competition hunger, converging targets and continuous improvement .

New citizens, inhabitants of these areas, will be hyper-connected individuals with strong consumption drives, which will develop and enlarge the market.

It must be pointed out that, besides being the most populated places, in these areas innovation is a priority, even more than in Europe and the US. Innovation will increase investment opportunities and competitive capacity moving the whole area towards world economy top level.

The terms “developed and emerging” countries will become obsolete. Competitive and non-competitive countries will be more appropriate. Moreover, large regional areas of competence will be created, since local markets will disappear.

The vast majority are already global markets, but in a short time all sectors will be global and with a high technological component.

Education and innovation will be the basis of the competitive advantages of companies. Public and private decisions that impact on the quality and effectiveness of the education system and the commitment to innovation, will be factors responsible for the future of the countries.

In a world where resources are becoming increasingly scarce, wealth and prosperity will come from countries or companies that have more capacity to generate talent.

In the next years, education will experience important changes and transformation processes. Training will be on demand. It will also become multidisciplinary and will be able to generate enough value to modify differential elements into competitive advantages.

10 essential characteristics

To do so, not only educational system must change and evolve, but the individual himself must draw on 10 essential characteristics:

Ability to work and spirit of sacrifice.

Ability to develop his/her own talent with a high degree of adaptability.

Be inspired by a clear vision.

Skills for complex decision making in complex environments.

Attitudes for the assumption of challenges to overcome fear of failure and learning from mistakes.

Be connected and merged with the digital world and manage at least one coding language.

Speak and write in English with a suitable level for the professional world.

Living abroad at certain times and be available and willing to move the place of residence without national boundaries, as something normal.

Having entrepreneurship and innovation ability to launch new projects in continuous mode.

Be extremely committed to a goal in order to always add value.

Adding or not these features will make a significant difference in the chances of employability and wages.

On the other hand, in the DNA of the country or the company innovation must be essential in order to generate added value products and services. Like doing so, customers will get complete and turnkey solutions. There will lay competitive advantage to generate new markets. Companies will have to struggle to be on the top.

This scenario will produce a strong polarization of markets. Within them there will be productive agents who will offer products and services with high added value and those offering low cost solutions.